GT3: Optimum On Top
The Flick Haigh/Jonny Adam Aston Martin will start Sunday’s two-hour British GT Championship race at Spa-Francorchamps from pole position, following a strong performance from the Optimum Motorsport pair in Saturday’s qualifying session.
Haigh’s 2:22.285 was the second-fastest lap set down in the Am portion of qualifying, and when combined with Adam’s 2:19.281 from the Pro segment, made for the fastest combined time set by any crew in the sessions.
Haigh will be joined on the front row by Graham Davidson in the Jetstream Aston Martin. The Scot set a time of 2:22.384 in the first part of GT3 qualifying, backed up by local driver Maxime Martin’s 2:19.357 in the second.
On the second row, the #7 Team Parker Bentley starts third courtesy of Ian Loggie and Callum MacLeod’s efforts, indeed, the latter’s 2:18.735 was the fastest individual time set across both sessions. Lining up fourth alongside Loggie will be Mark Farmer in the #11 TF Sport Aston Martin he shares with Nicki Thiim.
Guest entrant Remon Vos and his co-driver Tom Onslow-Cole qualified the Ram Racing Mercedes fifth, alongside the #101 Balfe Motorsport McLaren of Shaun Balfe and Rob Bell in sixth.
GT4: McLaren 1-2-3
Qualifying for the GT4 class was halted early on when David Pattison crashed the #56 Tolman McLaren heavily at Raidillon. Pattison got out of the car and was taken to the medical centre for checks, the car took no further part in qualifying and at the time of writing Tolman’s mechanics had not yet fully assessed the damage.
Once running resumed, it was Michael O’Brien and Charlie Fagg who put together the fastest combined time to take pole in the #4 Tolman McLaren, ahead of the Equipe Verschuur pairing of Finlay Hutchison and Daniel McKay in the #10 McLaren. Lewis Proctor and Jordan Albert in the second Tolman car (the #5) made it a top-three lockout for the Woking marque.
First of the non-McLarens in qualifying was the Ben Tuck/Ben #42 Green Century BMW, ahead of the top Pro-Am qualifiers, Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson in the Balfe Motorsport-run #501 McLaren. They’re joined on the third row for Sunday’s race by Callum Pointon and Patrik Mathiassen in the #55 HHC Motorsport Ginetta.
